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Objectives: To describe what is reported in the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) literature on small group learning formats in medicine, including the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) CPD Peer Review Groups (PRGs).Method: A literature review of international peer-reviewed publications in relation to the use of small group learning formats for CPD in medicine.Results: Small groups are commonly used as a learning format in medical CPD, primarily in general practice, but are little researched. Such groups take differing forms and they are valued by participants for a range of purposes, having effects on professionalism, clinical performance and doctors' wellbeing.Conclusion: We believe that the contribution of these groups to medical CPD should be further explored. To this end, this review forms the first part of a research project focussing on the RANZCP PRG model used by Australian and New Zealand psychiatrists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An earlier study reported the use of Quality Circles (QC) in a UK school in the context of understanding and reducing bullying and cyberbullying. Here, we report further work in the same school setting. The QC approach allows explorative analysis of problems in school settings, whereby students embark on a problem-solving exercise over a period of time. The process involves identifying key issues and prioritizing concerns, analysing problems and generating solutions, through participation in a series of workshops. The purpose of this research was to explore further the use of QCs as an effective means of gathering information on bullying and cyberbullying in school, and how these might have changed over one academic year; as well as to examine the use of QCs in empowering pupils and in producing pupil-led solutions. This study validated the use of QCs as an engaging process for pupils (N = 30) which encourages a range of suggested solutions to problems. The information gained from the QCs supported a transitory notion of bullying behaviour, whereby forms of bullying and cyberbullying continue to alter over time, thus prevention programmes must adapt to the changeable nature of this behaviour to remain effective. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Peer review, standard practice for most scholarly journals, often involves mundane discussions between writer and referees mediated by an editor. Occasionally invoked are more controversial issues such as the nature of science or the standards associated with good scientific practice. This article makes a case for recognizing the critical significance of this site - where exchanges between authors, editors and referees take place - as the location where boundaries of acceptable scholarship are negotiated. I argue that metalogues - written conversations among parties that preserve individual voices while revealing contested areas - offer a method of inquiry for exploring the creation of scholarship. Using referees' comments, this article explores what one contested area might look like using writing style as an example. It models the metalogue as a method of inquiry. An advantage of this practice is making visible otherwise abstract philosophical debates through applied examples using empirical evidence generated during the review process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents an analysis of the benefits of two team structures - quality circles and self-managing work groups- for Australian work organizations utilizing the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey for 1995. The analysis indicates that firms with team structures have higher labor productivity, a flatter management structure and reduced employee turnover. The presence of team structures in Australian firms indicates a decrease in industrial harmony. The findings were inconclusive regarding absenteeism and proftability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distinguishes adoption and institutional entrenchment of management practices in organizations. Definition of management practices, fad and entrenchment; Bases of adoption and entrenchment of a practice; Occurrence of institutional entrenchment; Comparison between quality circles and total quality management entrenchment.

Examines the relationship between the degree of voluntary participation in quality circles, employee work climate perceptions, and the quality circle outcome measures among federal government employees. Relationship of the degree of participation in quality circles with the quality circle guidelines; Effects of economic gains on the quality circle guidelines.

Many people have been amazed by the present level of economic prosperity in Japan. What is not realized is the fact that Quality Control has been the most significant contributing factor to this rise.It has been proven advantageous to have a complete understanding of Quality Control activities. This paper explains in a step-by-step fashion the implementation of a QC program, the guidelinesfor the development of QC activities, the procedurefor introducing QC circles to Service Indiistries, and the advantages of utilizing this program in a hotel cotttpany.An actual QC seminar has been outlined and aids in developing a true understanding of the program. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study focuses upon the messages presented in quality circle training manuals. Analyzing 10 of the most popular manuals designed for quality circle members, we explore whether the training goes beyond instruction in problem solving and facilitates changes in the way the workers think about themselves and their relationships with management and unions. Content analysis of over 500 messages indicates the messages overwhelmingly represent the concerns, values, and perspectives of management. We conclude that it is imperative that workers and unions be aware of the messages embedded within these manuals and work with management to assure that multiple positions are recognized and taken into account in any type of participation program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study explores how the organizational technique of quality circles (QC) was used by a company in the Southwest as part of its overall antiunion strategy during a union campaign. The author explores how the organization of the social process of production into this small group human relations technique, a common component of many quality of work life programs in hundreds of U.S. industries, increased the control that supervisors and managers had over the attitude and behavior of employees during the organizing drive by a major international union. This type of "participative management technique served the corporate end of remaining nonunion by affecting vital elements of the plant culture. Specifically, the QC program allowed management to exert increased control over the selection and socialization or the work force as well as the work relations and leadership patterns emerging at the plant during the campaign. The author argues that rather than being a technique chosen for the plant primarily because of its democratizing potential and productivity benefits, the quality circle program was specifically chosen as an alternative to unionization for the plant and, as such, was developed as an effective and sophisticated "union busting" tool during the campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cursory glance at current reading lists in management and administrative sciences will show that "employee involvement," "Theory Z," "quality of work life" (QWL) and "quality circles" are the current rage with U.S. management. Many labor educators have been bombarded with horror stories of union members being alienated from their local unions through such programs. Local union leaders explain that while they initially thought quality circles sounded good because they "made the members feel their opinions counted," to their dismay, they saw these participation programs encourage workers to go around the contract, not to file important grievances and to start viewing the union as an outside third party. Moreover, they also found that many of the workers' suggestions that would not increase productivity but would improve the shop environment were being automatically rejected by management. In some cases, a decertification drive was initiated and the local leadership discovered that the company's quality circle consultant was, in fact, an employee of one of the more notorious union-busting law firms.

There are no panaceas in the field of worker-manager relationships. Neither quality circles nor any other participative management approach holds the answers to work-related problems. Such programs and practices arc not intrinsically good or bad. It is how the various parties respond to them that determines whether these ideas make a useful contribution to improving working conditions or not. Although the observations presented here will be about the author's experiences with quality control circles (QCCs), the author believes they apply more generally to employee involvement programs of various sorts, QCCs are a national movement in Japanese industry involving about one out of every eight Japanese employees. They are the norm in large scale manufacturing firms. In the United States as of early 1983, there were an estimated 5,000 work sites that had some version of QCCs. According to a 1983 study carried out by the "New York Stock Exchange," quality circles as such were the most rapidly growing "human resource activity" over the past two years in firms with over 500 employees. A QCC is a relatively autonomous problem-solving group of workers at a given workshop. It is usually led by a foreman or senior worker and meets once a week or every two weeks for about an hour.

The article deliberates on advanced manufacturing system (AMS). In light of the widespread adoption of advanced production concepts during 1980s, the traditional concern of manufacturing strategy-linking manufacturing structure and infrastructure to business strategy-has seemed less powerful in explaining competitive success or improving competitive performance. Companies that have introduced just-in-time, total quality management, continuous improvement, design for manufacturability, or concurrent engineering appear to have reaped the benefits of quality, dependability, flexibility, high variety, and low cost. The strategic power of manufacturing in supporting business strategy and creating competitive advantage has been an important theme in the literature on manufacturing management since the 1960s. Throughout the 1980s, however, competitive experience in many industries and academic research on manufacturing performance highlighted the influence of concepts such as just-in-time, total quality management (TQM), continuous improvement and design for manufacturability.

Learning from organizational innovations and best practices has become common. However, transfer of organizational innovations over cultural, national and industry borders often fails. A conceptual model is developed based on the abstraction level of the transfer process and whether it is driven by supply or demand. The content of transfers is classified as principles, organizational vehicles and tools. The model is applied to two cases: the Quality Control Circle (QCC) and Time-based Competition (TBC), which illustrate how principles and tools were transferred with little modifications while organizations had to be recreated through an abstraction-application process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proposes a theoretical approach to quality circles (QCs) and presents the results of a cross-organizational test of that theory. Systems approach to quality circle effects; Effect of QCs on employee withdrawal behaviors; Hypothesized effect of QC participation on absenteeism and on turnover.

Determines the outcomes of quality circles (QC) in seven departments of a United States mint. Lack of demonstrable effects of the QC on measures for key organizational outcomes; Significant effects on suggestion, grievance and sick leave statistics.

Describes the quality-circle program the Accor hotel group adopted. Accomplishment of the first quality-circles; Goal of quality-circle program.

The article discusses the effectiveness of quality circles (QCs) programs and attempts to overcome deficiencies of QC research. Since 1974, numerous organizations have attempted to implement QCs and literally hundreds of books, articles and conference papers have been written about related change programs. With so many organizations using QCs and so many people writing about them, one might well surmise that QCs must be quite effective. As a matter of fact, a group of people sells QC programs as a panacea for any organizational or motivational problem. More moderate supporters cite positive research results from various QC projects. Included in the long list of alleged benefits from QC projects are: improved quality, increased productivity, decreased absenteeism, increased job satisfaction, organizational commitment and improved morale. Other observers are neutral, holding that QCs can lead to success or failure, depending on how each particular program is implemented. Still other skeptics flatly question the efficacy.

The article discusses various forms and design factors that influence the effectiveness of parallel participation structures of business organizations focusing particularly on the Quality Circle. For those who want to build a more change-oriented and participative environment in a lasting manner, the only solution is to design approaches that are not parasitic on the regular organization. This implies the transfer of responsibility and authority and alteration of role expectation and reward systems in organizations. In other words, it requires alteration in the system and processes of the regular organization. This is a far more risky and fundamental change than the creation of parallel problem-solving processes. Parallel participation programs can be a first step in moving an organization toward organizational effectiveness through employee involvement. It does not follow, however, that parallel programs are the best way to move toward high involvement structures. The ability of the organization to benefit from the efforts of such parallel structures requires that they may be more tightly coupled with the regular organization. Indeed, there is little evidence that it actually happens even though at first glance it seems like a good way to start. The reasons for this are the fundamental characteristics of activities which are parallel in nature. They are often structured to avoid impacting the regular organization's way of operating.

The article develops a group problem-solving process (GPSP) model for the comprehensive evaluation of organization development programs in business organizations. A unique feature of the GPSP Model is that it subdivides each of the system stages into four levels of variables related to the task, the individual, the group, and the organization. Generally, the group's environment is the organization, but in some situations a fifth level of variables--the environment of the organization--becomes important as when the members of the group interact directly with clients. This analysis of published quality circle evaluations showed that they were generally not comprehensive. Half of the evaluations looked only at output variables, hardly any of the studies measured feedback variables, and feedback about organizational consequences was totally neglected. Other variables that were seldom evaluated were task, individual, and group inputs and task, individual, and organizational processes. The GPSP Model is a conceptual framework for classifying the variables that influence or describe the performance of problem-solving groups. It has been used to summarize the variables that have been measured, but not to analyze the causal relationships among them. Consequently, it does not specify the effect of any variable or class of variables on another.

Quality circle advocates suggest a wide array of positive results when this participation technique is used. This study explores the importance of company, employee group (circle or non-circle), and time as well as their interactions. Assessment of circle performance was measured by employee attitudes, actual performance, and facilitator perception. This study did not support small group behavior and group dynamics research, as well as quality circle case study reports, that suggest attitudes will improve when quality circles are formed and will remain improved over time. Actual performance indicated cost savings and perceived circle success in three of the four circles, even though neither attitudes nor quality significantly improved over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The productivity of 47 quality circles (QCs) over a 3-year period was examined using the archival data of a QC program. The dependent variables were the quantity of QC presentations and the speed of problem solving. These two dependent variables were examined as related to upper-management attendance (high vs. low). QC initiation (management-initiated vs. self-initiated), and collar color (white vs. blue) in a 2 &times 2 &times 2 MANOVA. The results showed that QCs with a high level of upper-management attendance solved their problems significantly faster than did those QCs with a low level of attendance. Management-initiated QCs solved their problems significantly faster and solved more problems than did self-initiated QCs. Self-initiated QCs with a low level of upper-management attendance had a slower speed of problem solving. Further, self-initiated QCs with white-collar workers also had a slower speed of problem solving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality circle (QC) programs instituted in two Department of Defense (DOD) organizations were evaluated within the framework of a nonequivalent control group design. Two waves of survey data were collected from 107 members of a military maintenance organization and 165 employees of a medical facility located on the same DOD installation. Analysis of covariance procedures on data from the maintenance sample isolated significant treatment group effects on 7 of the 20 criterion variables used in the study. However, QC treatment effects were not apparent in the covariance results for the hospital personnel. Subgroup analyses on the data provided by active QC members identified different patterns of responses from individuals in the two samples. Active circle members from the maintenance organization tended to evaluate their situation more favorably as the study progressed. In contrast, responses provided by active QC group members from the medical facility tended to take an increasingly more negative tone over the course of the study. Qualitative differences between the two organizations in the conduct of the QC intervention are reviewed in an effort to identify potential moderating variables conditioning the degree of program success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the developmental effects of quality circles (QC) on participants' job performance and promotions. Reports of QC success first appeared in testimonials espousing the many benefits of early QC programs, benefits ranging from increased productivity and cost savings to enhanced quality of worklife. While the goals of circle programs are broad and diverse, a goal common to many is employee development. Surveys reporting the most frequently cited goals of American QC programs also reflect this emphasis on circles as a human resource development tool. As an approach to participative management, QC incorporate the philosophy that employees at all organizational levels want to be involved in decisions that affect their jobs and that those closest to a given job are in the best position to evaluate its problems and potential solutions. The QC problem-solving forum, a unique combination of group dynamics theory and statistical quality control theory, serves to operationalize this philosophy by extending problem-solving and decision-making responsibilities down the organizational ladder.

The unprecedented rapidity with which quality circle principles and techniques have caught on in U.S. and European industry belies the fact that a dearth of evaluation research exists documenting quality circle program outcomes. A review of the available studies constituting this literature revealed that this research has frequently been susceptible to a common set of methodological deficiencies. However, even the results of well-designed quality circle evaluation studies may be misleading if relevant organizational circumstances are not given due consideration when a change agent selects quality circles from his or her repertoire of organizational development (OD) interventions. The effectiveness of quality circles, and for that matter organizational intervention procedures in general, depends upon the compatibility of the intervention and attributes of the organization `s situation, the demand placed upon tangible and intangible resources, and the type of response desired from participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the effects on a task force team of the application of information feedback concerning the task performance and socio-emotional climate of that team. It is concerned with the experimental consequences of structuring feedback to a group of people working as a team on a complex task. The general contention is that by providing the team with information relating to its own feelings and performance, it will be able to supplement its unstructured feedback systems with information which can be used to generate corrective control actions with the resultant effect of increasing team performance. Most of the developments such as process consultation, team building, and quality circles, depend on the presence of a consultant/facilitator who mediates the feedback process. With increasing technological and environmental change, companies are subject to the need for more flexible response structures which include the formation of temporary task force/project teams, made up of a mixture of specialists. Such teams have to rapidly overcome barriers such as team member mistrust, misunderstanding, and conflicting goals, e.g., between management scientists and managers in order to achieve task objectives.

Reviews the motion picture "Intercultural Contact: The Japanese in Rutherford County, Tennessee."